Jinny Moran of Greenville sharpens her law enforcement skills online at Lander

Capt. Jinny Moran, left, records manager for the Greenville County Department of Public Safety, consults with Sgt. Paul Silvaggio, a Greenville County Sheriff Department homicide detective. Moran will be one of the first two law enforcement officers to graduate from Lander University’s first-in-the-state online criminal justice management program in December.

Jinny Moran wanted to expand her knowledge of law enforcement, a field she has worked in for 25 years, so she was one of the first to enroll in Lander University’s online criminal justice management program introduced in 2006.

Moran is Capt. Jinny Moran, manager of the Records Management Services Division of the Greenville County Department of Public Safety, which supplies support services to law enforcement agencies in the county.

Lander was the first public educational institution in South Carolina to offer criminal justice management online giving Moran and other lawmen and women the opportunity to complete requirements for a bachelor’s degree at their own pace.

The program is open to candidates who have a two-year degree in criminal justice and are working in law enforcement or have at least two years law enforcement experience.

Moran earned an associate degree in public service with a criminal justice emphasis from Greenville Technical College in 1999. She is a native of North Carolina and has lived in Greenville for most of her life. She has one daughter and three grandsons.

“The Lander program has been very beneficial even though I have been in management for a number of years,” she said, citing courses that have helped with aspects of her job such as budgets, human resources, public administration and ethics.

She said she has shared some of what she has learned with members of her staff and would continue to do so in the future.

About the program, she said, “Everybody who is involved is so nice. I feel Lander really cares about their students and wants them to succeed.”

In December, Moran will be one of the first two law enforcement officers to receive a bachelor’s degree after completing Lander’s online criminal justice management program. She likes the flexibility of online study because it enables her to coordinate Lander courses with general education classes at Greenville Tech, and balance her academic pursuits and work schedule.

Scarlett Moore, an attorney in Greenville who specialized in criminal law and federal sentencing guidelines, heads the Lander online program. She is an assistant professor of criminal justice and pre-law adviser at Lander. “Because the program is offered online, it does not disrupt officers’ lives; they are able to continue working fulltime while studying,” she said.

 A native of Asheville, N.C., Moore received her law degree from Louisiana State University and worked for the South Carolina Department of Social Services as a child abuse and neglect prosecutor. She was a part-time Lander faculty member before accepting her current position last August.

Mike Frederick, chief deputy for the Greenwood County Sheriff’s Department, an instructor in the Landers online criminal justice management program, brings 20 years of experience in local, county and federal law enforcement to his teaching job. He said, “Academic requirements have continued to creep into law enforcement over the years,” adding that many departments require a bachelor’s degree or higher for command positions.

Frederick has a bachelor’s degree from Mount Olive University in North Carolina and a master’s degree from the University of South Carolina. He is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va. His work experience includes tours of duty in the Middle East and Central and South America with the federal government’s Joint Counter-Terrorism Task Force.

He has taught many criminal justice courses over his career but this is his first experience with online teaching. “I had to convert my classroom style and course content to Web-based presentations,” he said, noting that he receives hundreds of e-mails from students following up on the lessons he teaches.

Frederick’s wife, Kim, is also a criminal justice management instructor at Lander. She has a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of South Carolina and has held positions in research and development at the state Criminal Justice Academy in Columbia, as manager of the Juvenile Justice Department in Horry County and as a victim’s advocate.

 Lander has two other online academic programs. The Department of Nursing offers a bachelor of science degree in nursing for registered nurses, and the Department of Business Administration has an online health care management certificate program.

For more information about Lander’s online courses or other degree programs, call the university's Admissions Office at 864-388-8307.